The List 6175 TGB
Good Sunday Morning July 31 .
I hope that you are all having a great weekend
Regards,
Skip
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This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
July 31
1865 The East India Squadron, later known as Asiatic Squadron, is established under Commodore Henry H. Bell, USN, to operate from Sunda Strait to Japan. The squadron consists of USS Hartford, USS Wachusett, USS Wyoming and USS Relief.
1874 USS Intrepid is commissioned, the first U.S. warship equipped with torpedoes.
1941 The Japanese government reports that the bombing of USS Tutuila (PR 4), which happens the previous day during the bombing raid on Chungking, China, is just an accident, pure and simple. USS Tutuilas motor boats were badly damaged and motor sampan is cut loose when one bomb falls eight yards astern of the vessel. There were no causalities.
1943 PBM (VP 74) and Brazilian A-28 and Catalina sink German submarine U-199 off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Small seaplane tender USS Barnegat (AVP 10) rescues the survivors.
1951 Dan A. Kimball takes office as the 50th Secretary of the Navy, serving until January
1953. His tenure is marked by the continuation of the Korean War, expansion of the Nation's defense, and technological progress in aviation, engineering and other defense-related fields.
1953 His tenure is marked by the continuation of the Korean War, expansion of the Nation's defense, and technological progress in aviation, engineering and other defense-related fields.
1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower responds to Secretary of the Navy William B. Franke's recommendation to name three SSBNs (nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarines) with these names: USS Sam Houston, USS Thomas A. Edison, and USS John Marshall. The proposed name from Secretary Franke, USS Nathan Hale, is used two years later.
2010 USS Missouri (SSN 780) is commissioned at Groton, Conn., her homeport. The seventh Virginia-class attack submarine is the fourth Navy vessel to honor the state of Missouri.
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Today in History July 31
904 Arabs capture Thessalonica.
1703 English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters.
1760 Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drives the French army back to the Rhine River.
1790 The U.S. Patent Office opens.
1882 Belle and Sam Starr are charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory.
1875 Former president Andrew Johnson dies at the age of 66.
1891 Great Britain declares territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within its sphere of influence.
1904 The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia's Pacific coast, is completed.
1917 The third Battle of Ypres commences as the British attack the German lines.
1932 Adolf Hitler's Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubles its strength in legislative elections.
1944 The Soviet army takes Kovno, the capital of Lithuania.
1962 Federation of Malaysia formally proposed.
1971 Apollo 15 astronauts take a drive on the moon in their land rover.
1987 An F4 tornado in Edmonton, Alberta kills 27 and causes $330 million in damages; the day is remembered as "Black Friday."
1988 Bridge collapse at Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Butterworth, Malaysia, kills 32 and injures more than 1,600.
1990 Bosnia-Herzegovina declares independence from Yugoslavia.
1991 The US and the USSR sign a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact.
1999 NASA purposely crashes its Discovery Program's Lunar Prospector into the moon, ending the agency's mission to detect frozen water on Earth's moon.
2006 Fidel Castro temporarily hands over power to his brother Raul Castro.
2007 The British Army's longest continual operation, Operation Banner (1969-2007), ends as British troops withdraw from Northern Ireland.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Thanks to THE BEAR
… For The List for Sunday, 31 July 2022… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 31 July 1967… Dr. Henry Kissinger checks in…
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War
. Listed by last name and has other info
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From the List archives
thanks to Doctor Rich
The First Jet Pilots
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Thanks to Tom
View the Latest Edition of "This Week @NASA" (published July 22, 2022)
Folks –
VERY busy week doing research proposals…..charting the future and trying to fund ideas for the 10-20 years…..
Highlights….
25th Space-X launch….Elon will own space if the keep this up! Look up his Starship project…stunning: https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/
Studying dust….what a drag, huh? No….put enough in the air an YOU CHANGE THE CLIMATE!! That is where climate change, not Al Gore an hydrocarbons (a no nothing politician…jeezz)
Artemis I has no crew – empty – but for a couple of human dummies that are instrumented. Reason? RISK! We risked it all on the STS-1 mission with the shuttle, but even I n Apollo, there were some un-crewed tests…..just not Apollo I, which killed 3 astronauts – on the pad, not in space.
Stay tuned for (maybe….) September launch? Get a really good look at it because bets are….this 3 billion (yes billion!) per launch critter is not going to survive. If we could not survive a 450million per shuttle launch, how is THIS going to survive??
Viper Water finder….cool robot…we don't think about it but humans need a LOT of water and that stuff is HEAVY! Find it there or bring it…choice is yours…better to find it there! Water hides under the surface and in shadows of craters…..and has been there since the moon was formed. Think about it….extracting it changes the moons "climate" (tee hee!) new field – lunar environmentalists??? Lunar Environmental Protection Agency (LEPA???)
Capstone – very cool….check out the free video: www.eye.nasa.gov
In closing…remember where you were on July 20th 1969….watching a B&W TV? How far have we come and the closing thought this week….Have we given thanks to God for living in the country that did so much for so many and asked so little of the rest of humanity??? Wokies are too stupid to understand the question….I KNOW ya'll get it….
ENJOY!
Tom
Interesting reading:
MARS PICTURES
Colonizing Space:
• AGENCYWIDE MESSAGE TO ALL NASA EMPLOYEES
• Points of Contact: Brittany Brown, brittany.a.brown@nasa.gov and Andre Valentine, andre.valentine-1@nasa.gov, Office of Communications, NASA Headquarters
• ------------------------------------------------------------------------
• View the Latest Edition of "This Week @NASA" (published July 22, 2022)
• View the latest "This Week @NASA," produced by NASA Television, for features on agency news and activities. Stories in this program include:
• Commercial Cargo Spacecraft Docks to the Space Station
• Spacewalk Conducted Outside the Space Station
• NASA Updates Launch Status of Artemis I Moon Mission
• NASA Replans Delivery of VIPER Moon Rover
• Follow CAPSTONE's Journey to the Moon in Real Time
• Apollo 11 Moon Landing Anniversary
• To watch this episode, click on the image below:
•
• Watch the Video
• To access this edition of "This Week @NASA," you may also visit:
• This notice is being sent agencywide to all employees by NASA INC in the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters.
Thomas E. Diegelman
NE311 / ISS Comm & Track VSE
"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Audiens sapiens sapientior erit et intellegens gubernacula possidebit
"A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser; and he that understands, shall possess the government."
"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."
― Plato, The Republic
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Subject: Fwd: Pilots Don't Die.. they "FLY WEST"
Thanks to Mike
FOR ALL PILOTS, NAVS, GIBS, CREW CHIEFS & GUNNERS
I hope there's a place, way up in the sky
Where Aviators can go when they have to die.
A place where a guy could buy a cold beer
For a friend and a comrade whose memory is dear.
A place where no doctor or lawyer could tread,
Nor a management-type would e'ler be caught dead!
Just a quaint little place, kind of dark, full of smoke,
Where they like to sing loud, and love a good joke.
The kind of a place that a lady could go
And feel safe and secure by the men she would know.
There must be a place where old aviators go,
When their wings become heavy, when their airspeed gets low,
Where the whiskey is old, and the women are young,
And songs about flying and dying are sung.
Where you'd see all the fellows who'd 'flown west' before,
And they'd call out your name, as you came through the door,
Who would buy you a drink, if your thirst should be bad,
And relate to the others, "He was quite a good lad!"
And there, through the mist, you'd spot an old guy
You had not seen in years, though he'd taught you to fly.
He'd nod his old head, and grin ear to ear
And say, "Welcome, my Son, I'm proud that you're here!
For this is the place where true flyers come
When the battles are over, and the wars have been won.
They've come here at last, to be safe and alone,
Away from the government clerk, and the management clone;
Politicians and lawyers, the Feds, and the noise,
Where all hours are happy, and these good ol' boys
Can relax with a cool one, and a well deserved rest!
This is Heaven, my Son. You've passed your last test!"
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Where are those kind of men now
Thanks to Dale
The Revolt of the Admirals
In the United States, it was assumed that nuclear weapons would be widely employed in future conflicts, rendering conventional land armies and fleets at sea irrelevant.
(This article appeared earlier in 2019.)
In the wake of the mushroom clouds that blossomed over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it swiftly dawned on political and military leaders across the globe that warfare between superpowers would never again be the same. But what exactly were the implications of nuclear weapons when it came to planning military force structure?
In the United States, it was assumed that nuclear weapons would be widely employed in future conflicts, rendering conventional land armies and fleets at sea irrelevant. The newly formed Air Force particularly argued that carrier task forces and armored divisions were practically obsolete when (ostensibly) just a few air-dropped nuclear bombs could annihilate them in one fell swoop.
The Air Force touted it soon-to-be operational fleet of ten-thousand-mile-range B-36 Peacemaker nuclear bombers as the only vital war-winning weapon of the nuclear age. This logic resonated conveniently with the postwar political program mandating sharp cuts to U.S. defense spending and force structure—which the Air Force naturally argued should fall upon the Army and Navy.
The Army responded by devising "Pentomic Divisions" organized for nuclear battlefields, with weapons ranging from nuclear-armed howitzers and rocket artillery to bazooka-like Davy Crockett recoilless guns. The Navy, meanwhile, sought to find a way to integrate nuclear bombs into its carrier air wings. However, early nuclear bombs were simply too heavy for World War II-era carrier-based aircraft.
In 1945, the Navy began commissioning three larger forty-five-thousand-ton Midway-class carriers which incorporated armored flight decks for added survivability. The decks were swiftly modified to angular, effectively lengthened configuration for jet operations. Neptune P2V-C3 maritime patrol planes converted into nuclear bombers could take off from Midway-class carriers using rocket-pods but would have no way landing on the carrier deck.
Therefore, the Navy decided it needed huge supercarriers from which it could operate its own fifty-ton strategic bombers. These would displace over 40 percent more than the Midway at sixty-eight thousand tons, and measure 12 percent longer at 330-meters. In July 1948, Defense Secretary James Forrestal approved plans for five such carriers, the first named USS United States with hull number CVA-58.
The naval heavy bombers (which didn't exist yet) were expected to have such wide wings that naval architects decided that CVA-58 would have a completely flush deck without the standard "island" superstructure carrying a radar and flight control tower. Instead, the carrier would feature side-mounted telescoping smokestacks that could be raised should smoke impeded flight operations, and a similarly retractable wheelhouse that could be extended to observe navigation and flight operations.
The ship's air wings would include twelve to eighteen heavy bombers that would mostly remain parked on the flight deck, exposed to the elements. Four side-mounted elevators would ferry forty to fifty-four jet fighters between the hangar and flight deck to escort the bombers. Eight nuclear bombs per heavy bomber would also be stowed in the hangar. The combined ship's company and airwing would total 5,500 personnel.
The carrier's oddly-shaped deck included four steam catapults—two for use by bombers, and two axial "waist" catapults.
Because the ship would be effectively blind without an elevated radar and control tower, a separate cruiser was intended to serve as the carrier's "eyes." Nonetheless, CVA-58 still incorporated eight 5-inch guns for air defense, and dozens of rapid-fire short-range cannons.
The "Revolt of the Admirals"
Though theoretically capable of contributing to conventional strike and sea control missions, the heavy bomber-equipped CVA-58 was clearly an attempt by the Navy to duplicate the Air Force's strategic nuclear strike capabilities.
This put giant crosshairs on the program during an era of sharp defense cuts. After all, deploying strategic bombers at sea was many times more expensive than basing them on land.
Following his reelection in November 1948, President Harry Truman replaced Forrestal—a naval aviator in World War I, and former secretary of the Navy—with Louis Johnson, who had fewer qualms about enforcing defense spending cuts.
In April 1949, just five days after CVA-58's fifteen-ton keel was laid down in Newport News, Virginia, Johnson canceled the mega-carrier. He also began advocating dissolution of the Marine Corps, starting by transferring its aviation assets to the Air Force.
This upset the Navy bigwigs so much that Navy Secretary John Sullivan resigned, and numerous admirals began openly opposing the termination of a project they viewed as essential to validating their branch's existence in the nuclear age.
This "Revolt of the Admirals" developed into a crisis in civil-military relations, as the Navy's top brass defied the authority of their civilian commander-in-chief and resorted to covert methods in an attempt to influence public opinion. The Op-23 naval intelligence unit formed by Adm. Louis Denfeld secretly circulated a memo called the Worth Paper alleging that Johnson had corrupt motivations due to being a former director of Convair, manufacturer of B-36 bombers, which were also claimed to be deficient.
The bitter inter-service rivalry, and the utility of land-based bombers versus carriers, was publicly litigated in congressional hearings. The Army also piled on against the Navy, and public opinion turned against the sea-warfare branch as Op-23's activities were revealed.
As Gen. Douglas MacArthur would later discover, Truman had no qualms about squashing military leaders that questioned his authority. His new secretary of the Navy, Francis Matthews, torpedoed the career of several admirals that spoke against the CVA-58's termination despite an earlier promise that those testifying before Congress would be spared retaliation.
The irony of this tempest in a teacup, which resulted in the political martyrdom of many senior Navy leaders, was how misguided both sides swiftly proved to be.
In June 1950 the Korean War broke out, and the U.S. found itself desperately short of the necessary conventional land, air and sea forces. U.S. aircraft carriers and their onboard jet fighters soon bore the brunt of the initial fighting, and continued to play a major role until the end of the conflict.
And the Air Force's vaunted B-36s? They never dropped a single bomb in anger—fortunately, as they were only intended for use in apocalyptic nuclear conflicts.
It turned out that plenty of wars were liable to be fought without resorting to weapons of mass destruction.
However, the Navy also had cause to count itself fortunate that the CVA-58 had been canceled.
That's because in just a few years the size of tactical nuclear weapons rapidly decreased, while high-thrust jet engines enabled hauling of heavier and heavier loads. By 1950, nuclear-capable AJ-1 Savage hybrid jet/turboprop bombers were operational on Midway-class carriers, starting with the USS Franklin Roosevelt.
These were soon followed by nuclear-capable capable A-3 Sky Warrior and A-5 Vigilante bombers, A-6 and A-7 attack planes, and even multirole fighters like the F-4 Phantom II. Carriers with these aircraft were far more flexible than a CVA-58 full of B-36 wannabees ever could have been. Arguably, by the 1960s the Navy's ballistic missile submarines would amount to scarier strategic nuclear weapons than any aircraft-based delivery system.The schematics for CVA-58 nonetheless informed the Navy's first supercarriers, named rather appropriately the Forrestal-class, laid down during the Korean War. But the heavy-bomber carrying United States remains notable as the supercarrier the Navy absolutely thought it needed—but which with literally just a couple years more hindsight it discovered it truly could do without.
Runt
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Thanks to Dale
The past is prologue
The subject phrase has been used alot but probably no where better than the following:
This1991 sit-com was made 30 years ago and is frighteningly accurate today!!
This portrayal of ineptitude would be funny if it wasn't so eerily true in our life!
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Thanks to Mike
Phone call!
Several men are in the locker room of a golf club. A cell phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
MAN: "Hello"
WOMAN: "Hi Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes.
WOMAN: "I'm at the shops now and found this beautiful leather coat. It's only $2,000; is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure, go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Lexus dealership and saw the new models. I saw one I really liked."
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000."
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing… I was just talking to Janie and found out that the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $980,000 for it."
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and make an offer of $900,000. They'll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra eighty-thousand if it's what you really want."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open.
He turns and asks, "Anyone know whose phone this is?"
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Thanks to Royce
VERY
INTERESTING STUFF Some tongue in cheek
In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed
To beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.
Hence we have 'the rule
Of thumb'
Many years ago in
Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen
Only...Ladies Forbidden'...and thus, the word GOLF entered
Into the English language.
The first couple to
Be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma
Flintstone.
Men can read smaller
Print than women can; women can hear better.
Coca-Cola was
Originally green.
It is impossible to lick
Your elbow.
The State with the Highest percentage of people who walk to work:
Alaska
The percentage of
Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get
This...)
The percentage of
North America that is wilderness: 38%
The cost of raising
A medium-size dog to the age of eleven:
$ 16,400
The average number
Of people airborne over the U.S. In any given
Hour:
61,000
(this is significantly less since Covid-19)
Intelligent people
Have more zinc and copper in their hair..
The first novel ever
Written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco
Cable cars are the only mobile National
Monuments.
Each king in a deck
Of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, The Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
111,111,111 x
111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321
If a statue in the
Park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air,
The person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in
The air, the person died because of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died
Of natural causes
(If the statue is on the ground it is because of political reasons!)
Only two people
Signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, John Hancock
And Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but
The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
Q. Half of all
Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
Q. Most boat owners
Name their boats. What is the most popular boat name
Requested?
A.
Obsession
Q.. If you were to
Spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you
Would find the letter 'A'?
A. One
Thousand
Q. What do
Bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser
Printers have in common?
A. All were invented
By women.
Q. What is the only
Food that doesn't spoil?
A.
Honey
In Shakespeare's
time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened,
making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the
phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'
It was the accepted
practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the
wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with
all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because
their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the
honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
In English pubs, ale
is ordered by pints and quarts.. So in old England , when
customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind
your pints and quarts, and settle down.'
It's where we get
the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'
Many years ago in
England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or
handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill ,
they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle'
is the phrase inspired by this practice.
At least 75% of
people who read this will try to lick their
elbow!
Don't delete this paragraph below
just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read
it.
I cdnuolt blveiee
taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the
first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This
is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
YOU
KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2020 when..
1. You accidentally
enter your PIN on the microwave.
2. You haven't
played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list
of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of
three.
4. You e-mail the
person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for
not staying in touch with friends and family is that they
don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in
your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is
home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial
on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen
8. Leaving the house
without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first
20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic
and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in
the morning and go on line before getting your
coffee
11. You start
tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12 You're reading
this and nodding and laughing
13. Even worse, you
know exactly to whom you are going to forward this
message.
14. You are too busy
to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually
scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this
list
~~~~~~~~~~~AND
FINALLY~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
NOW U R LAUGHING at
yourself.
Go on, forward this
to your friends. You know you want to! Go lick your
elbow.
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This Day in U.S. Military History
July 31
1944 – On Tinian, American forces begin attacks on the last center of organized Japanese resistance, in the south of the island.
1964 – Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, takes the first close-up images of the moon–4,308 in total–before it impacts with the lunar surface northwest of the Sea of the Clouds. The images were 1,000 times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had attempted a similar mission earlier in the year–Ranger 6–but the probe's cameras had failed as it descended to the lunar surface. Ranger 7, launched from Earth on July 28, successfully activated its cameras 17 minutes, or 1,300 miles, before impact and began beaming the images back to NASA's receiving station in California. The pictures showed that the lunar surface was not excessively dusty or otherwise treacherous to a potential spacecraft landing, thus lending encouragement to the NASA plan to send astronauts to the moon. In July 1969, two Americans walked on the moon in the first Apollo Program lunar landing mission.
1964 – All-nuclear task force with USS Long Beach, USS Enterprise, and USS Bainbridge leaves Norfolk, VA to begin voyage, Operation Sea Orbit, to circle the globe without refueling. They returned on 3 October.
1971 – Apollo 15 astronauts (Dave Scott) took a drive on the moon in their land rover.
1972 – Hanoi challenges the Nixon administration on the dike controversy, claiming that since April there had been 173 raids against the dikes in North Vietnam with direct hits in 149 locations. On July 28, in response to claims by the Soviet Union that the United States had conducted an intentional two-month bombing campaign designed to destroy the dikes and dams of the Tonkin Delta in North Vietnam, a CIA report was made public by the Nixon administration. It stated that U.S. bombing at 12 locations had caused accidental minor damage to North Vietnam's dikes, but the damage was unintentional and the dikes were not the intended targets of the bombings. The nearly 2,000 miles of dikes on the Tonkin plain, and more than 2,000 miles of dikes along the sea, made civilized life possible in the Red River Delta. Had the dikes been intentionally targeted, their destruction would have destroyed centuries of patient work and caused the drowning or starvation of hundreds of thousands of peasants. Bombing the dikes had been advocated by some U.S. strategists since the beginning of U.S. involvement in the war, but had been rejected outright by U.S. presidents sitting during the war as an act of terrorism.
.Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
KISTERS, GERRY H.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant (then Sergeant), U.S. Army, 2d Armored Division. Place and date: Near Gagliano, Sicily, 31 July 1943. Entered service at: Bloomington, Ind. Birth: Salt Lake City, Utah. G.O. No.: 13, 18 February 1944. Citation: On 31 July 1943, near Gagliano, Sicily, a detachment of 1 officer and 9 enlisted men, including Sgt. Kisters, advancing ahead of the leading elements of U.S. troops to fill a large crater in the only available vehicle route through Gagliano, was taken under fire by 2 enemy machineguns. Sgt. Kisters and the officer, unaided and in the face of intense small arms fire, advanced on the nearest machinegun emplacement and succeeded in capturing the gun and its crew of 4. Although the greater part of the remaining small arms fire was now directed on the captured machinegun position, Sgt. Kisters voluntarily advanced alone toward the second gun emplacement. While creeping forward, he was struck 5 times by enemy bullets, receiving wounds in both legs and his right arm. Despite the wounds, he continued to advance on the enemy, and captured the second machinegun after killing 3 of its crew and forcing the fourth member to flee. The courage of this soldier and his unhesitating wil
RAMAGE, LAWSON PATERSON
Rank and organization: Commander, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Parche. Place and date: Pacific, 31 July 1944. Entered service at: Vermont. Born: 19 January 1920, Monroe Bridge, Mass. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Parche in a predawn attack on a Japanese convoy, 31 July 1944. Boldly penetrating the screen of a heavily escorted convoy, Comdr. Ramage launched a perilous surface attack by delivering a crippling stern shot into a freighter and quickly following up with a series of bow and stern torpedoes to sink the leading tanker and damage the second one. Exposed by the light of bursting flares and bravely defiant of terrific shellfire passing close overhead, he struck again, sinking a transport by two forward reloads. In the mounting fury of fire from the damaged and sinking tanker, he calmly ordered his men below, remaining on the bridge to fight it out with an enemy now disorganized and confused. Swift to act as a fast transport closed in to ram, Comdr. Ramage daringly swung the stern of the speeding Parche as she crossed the bow of the onrushing ship, clearing by less than 50 feet but placing his submarine in a deadly crossfire from escorts on all sides and with the transport dead ahead. Undaunted, he sent 3 smashing "down the throat" bow shots to stop the target, then scored a killing hit as a climax to 46 minutes of violent action with the Parche and her valiant fighting company retiring victorious and unscathed.
*YOUNG, RODGER W.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division. Place and date: On New Georgia, Solomon Islands, 31 July 1943. Entered service at: Clyde, Ohio. Birth: Tiffin, Ohio. G.O. No.: 3, 6 January 1944. Citation: On 31 July 1943, the infantry company of which Pvt. Young was a member, was ordered to make a limited withdrawal from the battle line in order to adjust the battalion's position for the night. At this time, Pvt. Young's platoon was engaged with the enemy in a dense jungle where observation was very limited. The platoon suddenly was pinned down by intense fire from a Japanese machinegun concealed on higher ground only 75 yards away. The initial burst wounded Pvt. Young. As the platoon started to obey the order to withdraw, Pvt. Young called out that he could see the enemy emplacement, whereupon he started creeping toward it. Another burst from the machinegun wounded him the second time. Despite the wounds, he continued his heroic advance, attracting enemy fire and answering with rifle fire. When he was close enough to his objective, he began throwing handgrenades, and while doing so was hit again and killed. Pvt. Young's bold action in closing with this Japanese pillbox and thus diverting its fire, permitted his platoon to disengage itself, without loss, and was responsible for several enemy casualties.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 31, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
31 July
1912: Navy pilot Lt Theodore G. Ellyson launched the first airplane from a catapult, designed and built by Capt W. Irving Chambers (USN). The plane lifted from its platform on the seawall at Annapolis, but immediately dove into the water. (24)
1941: The Lockheed PV-1 Ventura first flew.
1952: PROJECT HOP-A-LONG. Two MATS Sikorsky H-19 helicopters completed the first trans-atlantic helicopter flight. They touched down five times en route between Westover Field and Prestwick, Scotland. This proved the feasibility of ferrying helicopters overseas. (2) (9)
1957: The DEW Line, a distant early warning radar defense installation extending across the Canadian Arctic, reported as fully operational. (11) (24)
1958: Construction of a prototype hardened Titan I launch control facility with a silo-lift launcher and blockhouse began at Cooke AFB. (6)
1964: Alian Parker set a new, world distance-in-a-straight-line record for gliders by flying 647.17 miles from Odessa to Kimball, Neb.
1968: Two UH-1F helicopters from USAF Southern Command helped the Costa Rican government evacuate people endangered by the Mount Arenal volcano. (16) (26) COMBAT BRONCO. The first new, twin-turboprop OV-10A Bronco aircraft arrived at Bien Hoa AB to fly armed forward air controller missions with the 504th Tactical Air Support Group. (17)
1969: The Mariner space probes used infrared spectrophotometer and detectors to determine the surface temperature and atmospheric composition of Mars. (16) 1970: The first class of foreign students to graduate under the President's Vietnamization Program completed undergraduate pilot training at Keesler AFB. (16) (26)
1973: First Boeing T-43A aircraft delivered to Mather AFB. (12)
1984: The 390 SMW at Davis-Monthan AFB became the first Titan II wing to inactivate under the missile phaseout program. (1) (26)
1987: Grumman's plant in Melbourne, Fla., received the first E-8A (a modified Boeing 707-300) aircraft for upgrading to the JSTARS configuration.
1989: Through 7 August, MAC aircraft moved nearly 1,000 fire fighters, 850 tons of equipment, and medical supplies to southwestern Idaho, where a raging fire spread through thousands of acres of forest. The aircraft also sprayed 3,350 tons of fire retardant on the fire from high altitudes. (16) (26)
1995: The 351st Missile Wing, the last Minuteman II unit, inactivated at Whiteman AFB, Mo. (16)
1999: Two improved T-38C fighter training aircraft transferred from Edwards AFB to Columbus AFB, Miss., for testing. At Edwards, the T-38s completed a development test and evaluation of the aircraft's Avionics Upgrade Program, while the move to Columbus took the planes into initial operational testing and evaluation for Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training course and Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals. (AFNEWS Article 991727, 18 Sep 99)
2001: A B-2 Spirit successfully launched its first Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) at China Lake. Launched at 14,000 feet, the stealthy JASSM conducted a suite of preprogrammed maneuvers, including a full 360-degree segmented roll, and then tracked to its target. (3)
2006: AFFTC conducted a live fly exercise with pilots using a Network Centric Warfare environment for the first time. Pilots in multiple types of aircraft connected to data links of several real and simulated players over a US-wide distributed network. (3)
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